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Windforge is a 2D building block RPG that seamlessly combines gameplay like Contra with the freedom and building of Minecraft. Build airships and explore hostile skies in an ever changing Steampunk world. Everything you see can be created or destroyed, yielding an RPG without barriers that rewards creative problem solving and improvisation.

Contra style action mixed with the freedom and flexible play of Minecraft

Large completely destructible procedural world with multiple environment types

Build and fly fully-functional airships

Over 500 craftable items

Easy-to-control, skill-based combat with 360-degree aiming

Epic story line and quests that drive gameplay without constricting freedom

The first game to include minable sky whales, and meat blocks!

Freedom & Creativity

Windforge focuses on empowering the player with freedom and creativity. Story-driven and environmental based challenges in the world provide goals for players to harness that creativity.

In the world of Cordeus there are no artificial barriers. The game is designed without barriers such as fake doors, invisible walls, and unbreakable obstacles.

Explore, build and destroy anything!

All of the towns and ships in Windforge are constructed using the same tools and items players acquire throughout the duration of the game. There are over 500 items to craft in the game. A significant portion of these items can be used to build structures and airships.

A Dynamic Procedural World

The world will be constantly changing as the result of building, mining, and the damage caused by combat. Throughout the course of the game, players will be faced with choices that can cause widespread changes to the entire world.

The world of Cordeus is dynamic and completely destructible, combining many interacting objects and systems. This provides situations that are unique, and can even surpass players’ expectations.

Steampunk Airships

Traveling through the vast skies of Windforge is facilitated by the use of buildable airships. Windforge features a ship building system that is deep enough to provide interesting choices, yet simple enough to avoid tedious micromanagement. All of the major ship components on ships serve functional purposes. As parts break, ships can become disabled. This adds a whole new level of strategy to combat and ship design, and promotes improvisation and adaptation during play.

When beginning a new campaign, players will be prompted with a few basic choices: Name, Gender & Hair Colour.

Exclusive to Windforge is the last choice when customizing a character: Hometown. This choice will determine the initial stats of your character, along with their starting outfit. This will affect the way your character looks and feels at the beginning of your campaign.

As you progress, you'll be able to customize your character as you see fit. Every piece of equipment you choose to adorn your avatar with will be reflected in-game!

The modern way of life on Cordeus is reliant on refined Sky Whale oil.
Everything from the machines used daily, to the food that is eaten, is
ultimately dependent on the oil. The citizens of Cordeus are so hungry
for oil, that the once abundant population of Sky Whales is dwindling.
At current rate, the noble species will face certain extinction in a few
short years.

To avoid falling back into the dark ages, civilization must
find a new source of energy. It is said that an ancient people named the
Aetherkin had exotic sources of energy. Energy more powerful than anything any
human has ever seen. Unfortunately, research related to the Aetherkin is strictly
forbidden by law.

In an attempt to save humanity’s way of life, YOU have been secretly hired to uncover this ancient energy source.

The fate of Cordeus is in your hands!

Windforge features it's own original score created by the talented Mike Keogh! Take a listen to the very fitting themes that help set the tone for flying high in airships, and doing battle with giant Sky Whales!

Like what you hear? Pledge at the Music Lover level to get a digital copy of the Soundtrack!

We've come up with a set of rewards we think are both interesting and desirable. Most rewards are digital, so delivery will be simple and clean. The higher level tiers include physical rewards that will be sent out at no extra cost to the backers. These rewards are all one-of-a-kind creations that make the investment worthwhile!

UPDATE: Have you seen our brand new rewards? Can't decide between two? There's a tier for both! Also...

Get 2 copies of Windforge for $25 (save 20%)!

Get 2 copies of the Pre-Release for $35 (save 30%)!

The ENGINEER Tier is now 50% off! On sale for $500!

Add-Ons

We want to make Windforge available to as many people as possible! Multiple copies of the game are now available!

If you want to add to your current pledge, here’s what you need to do:

Click on "Manage Your Pledge".

Increase your pledge by the cost of the desired add-on(s).

DON’T change your selected reward.

Remember to MESSAGE US with your choice of add-on!

The available add-ons are:

An extra copy of Windforge ($10 CAD)

An extra copy of the Windforge Pre-Release ($16 CAD)

Everyone loves the idea of MULTIPLAYER! We love the idea too!

That being said, we've decided to restructure our goals in a much more flexible manner that will allow for the best outcome possible.

We present you with two outcomes:

Meeting $150k will allow us to implement the Multiplayer (Arena Mode) stretch goal

However, if we do not reach $150k but still manage to attain any of the other goals (such as lower $65k Ship Crew stretch goal), we will still implement them!

It's a win-win situation. Now let's reach those stretch goals!

$150,000: Multiplayer (Arena Mode)

Arena mode will let you play with or against your friends with the characters and ships you have created in single player mode. Duke it out against one another to determine who's strongest, or team up to vanquish stronger foes!

$200,000: Multiplayer (Story mode)

Enjoy the FULL Windforge experience with friends! Experience the tale of the world of Cordeus with a friend by your side!

----- OR -----

$65,000:Ship Crew

Place different crew members in
your ships and buildings that perform specialized tasks! Crew types include:

Guard: Attacks enemies that invade your ship.

Gunner: Controls ship turrets and fire upon hostile enemies.

Mechanic: Repairs your ship.

Merchant: A
travelling salesperson from which you can buy and sell items.

$75,000: Turtle Islands & Giant Worms

We would like to include some crazy/cool/epic creature ideas:

Turtle Islands: Giant turtles with entire islands on their shells! Mine and build on the island even while the turtles are alive! Ever wanted to build a house on the back of a giant turtle? Or attach propellers to try controlling where said turtle moves? The possibilities are exciting!

Giant Worms: Inspired by the sand worms in Dune, and the Exogorth in
Star Wars, these creatures will burrow inside of islands and attempt to eat
anything that gets near the opening of their caves. They're similar in scale to the Sky Whales, but are much more dangerous.

$85,000: Hardcore mode

The ultimate survival experience!! It will remove most of the safety-nets, introduce perma-death, and require more resource management to survive. Game balancing will be reviewed to ensure the game is challenging and fair.

$135,000: Apple & Steambox Support

We want to bring Windforge to more platforms! The first target we've chosen is simple enough to translate without losing anything in translation.

When we first began the project, Kickstarter wasn't available in Canada. Now that it is, we'd like to use this amazing tool to raise funds that will allow us to hire 2 developers over the course of 3 months.

This will allow us to focus on our own original title, rather than only doing contract work. We'll be able to re-implement features that were dropped during development.

The funds will specifically go towards:

Game Features (40%)

User Interface (10%)

Quality Assurance (25%)

Gameplay Balancing (20%)

Steam Integration (5%)

Founded in 2010 by a group of video game industry veterans, Snowed In Studios is an independent, privately-owned video game developer based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

For almost two years we have worked on WindForge, a PC game that blends the fun of Minecraft and Terraria, with a RPG shooter.

We are in the last phase of development, and we need your help to make the dream of publishing our first large scale game a reality.

If you support us, we will be able to complete the game and promote it in 2014.

The Snowed in team have collectively worked on some of the world's biggest franchises in gaming such as FIFA, Need For Speed, The Sims, Far Cry and Deus Ex for some of the the world's biggest companies like Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Eidos.

Now we want to leverage that expertise to launch an original title of our own!

Made possible with the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Risks and challenges

Since the game development has been underway for some time, most risks have been mitigated.

The nature of a game such as this (an open world with a great level of freedom) makes it hard for developers to validate all use case scenarios. The possibilities are almost infinite. The QA testing will go a long way to helping us catch as many errors as possible.

The targeted platform (PC) implies a lot of configurations which are difficult to cover. We plan to work with QA firm to cover most hardware configurations.

Game balancing is a big challenge. Making the game challenging without being frustratingly difficult, while maintaining a deep and immersive story is a great challenge in an open world RPG. We have set in place multiple tools for gathering metrics during Beta testing, but finding the right balance will take time.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 125 or more
About $120

SKY FLASK

Always be prepared for the worst case scenario! Carry around your spirits in style! Get the new EXCLUSIVE Windforge Flask! Sky Whale Essence sold separately. (Includes all previous rewards except the previous reward.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 500 or more
About $479

ENGINEER (SALE)

Using the tools in Windforge, build an enemy Airship that will be implemented into the final game (to our discretion)! This ship will appear randomly as an enemy encounter in the skies of Cordeus. Includes your name in the credits as a Descendant of the Aetherkin! (Includes all except previous three rewards.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 1,500 or more
About $1,438

ARCHITECT

Using the tools in Windforge, build and name a town! Populate it with NPCs, give them names and even determine their speech! (to our discretion) Includes your name in the credits as a Duke / Duchess of [Your Town's Name]! (Includes all except Enemy Ship Design and Original Sketch rewards.)